Putnam Election Results 2018

The 2018 election cycle is now over and while there were no major upsets upsets, there were a few surprises.

In the New York State Senate 40th district race, Incumbent Terence Murphy (R), appears to have been narrowly defeated by Democrat challenger Peter Harkham. The margin of victory, with 276 of 277 precincts reporting, was less then 2,000 votes.

In the 41st Senate District, incumbent Sue Serrino has defeated her democratic challenger Karen Smythe, by 2,146 votes. Although Challenger Smythe has refused to concede at this time hoping the absentee ballots to be counted will not only narrow the race but give her the victory.

Joe Castellano(R-Brewster) defeated Challenger Scott Reing (D) to retain his 7Th District Putnam County Legislature seat by several hundred votes.

In other local races, County Executive Mary Ellen Odell has defeated her Democratic challenger, Town of Kent Supervisor Maureen Fleming with over 20,000 votes to Miss Fleming's approximately 15,700 votes.

In Southeast, the race to fill the seat vacated by Republican Elizabeth Hudak left vacant after her surprise resignation due to family and health concerns back in September was won by political newcomer, Republican Eric Larca. Mr. Larca easily defeated second time council candidate, Democrat Melinda Montanaro, 3,345 to 2,845. Mr. Larca will finish out Mrs. Hudak's term, which is due to expire in 2021.

On the state level, Governor Andrew Cuomo was easily re-elected to a third term as governor. Despite a strong showing upstate from Republican Challenger Marc Malinaro (R-Dutchess), his victories in more then 45 counties was not enough to overcome the downstate dominance of Cuomo. In NYC and surrounding counties Cuomo enjoyed a more then 3-1 margin of victory.